Emails from BA members have been circulating with recommendations to read Michael Crichton’s book State of Fear. If you have read this book you’ll understand our hesitancy to report on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at reining in industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” in an attempt to control climate change (global warming). The Kyoto Treaty was a global pact negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. A major factor in implementing the treaty lies in the United States’ agreement to participate, which it has not given. However European environment ministers who are key Kyoto supporters indicate they will step up efforts to win Washington over this year. In a speech given in 2003 author Crichton stated that environmentalism has become a religion, and those accepting its tenets, such as man-made global warming, are doing so without the facts, many of which he cites and footnotes in State of Fear. (A more comprehensive update on Global Warming will be published in an upcoming issue.)